All That Glitters is Gold
by lasrber
Summary: When a group of unwary treasure hunters stumble accross an ancient burial ground, they relase an ancient evil that could change there world forever... if said ancient evil can keep his hands off a certin bernet! madara/tenten AU
1. Emeralds

Admittedly, Tenten was impressed. The museum had spared no expense on the grand opening of its newest collection, but then, it wasn't known as the jewel of the fire kingdom for nothing. The building practically glowed, like something from Dorothy's emerald city under the recessed lighting and spotlights, a breath taking sight for any civilian who didn't spend most of their time searching the old runes for priceless artifacts.

Compared to underground cathedral in waterfall, which was light by an enchanting combination of thousands of precious gems imbedded into the walls, and jutsu, an skill few alive were able to use, let alone master, the castle, as the museum was knows as, was simply mediocre. Tenten retracted amazement.

Uninterested in its passengers ill mood, the hover limo pulled to a stop at the bottom of the sweeping stairs leading to the main entrance, and a man in a uniform designed to resemble an old world fashion was opening her door for her.

Momentarily, the treasure hunter played with the idea of pretending she was at the wrong place, but realized her dress gave her away. So, with no other choice, the slender female found herself stepping out of the safety of the secluded vehicle, and into the shark tank- er, crowd of high born, who were oh so charming she was sure.

Several heads turned at the sight of the burnet, glittering diamond encrusted heals sinking into the plush red carpet that made her teal Asian style dress stand out even more. But there was only one head she wanted, and she found it easily after entering the building; in fact, it seems that said head had been looking for her al well, seeing as it was easily made its way toward her when she spotted it.

Unwilling to walk further then necessary in heals she could find a much better use for, say, bashing an arrogant males head in, Tenten contented herself with standing to the side and waiting for her partner to reach her.

Hyuuga Neji, born into one of the most elite clans of the fire kingdom; However, being the descendent of a second son, it was unlikely he would inherit as head of the clan. No one had been surprised when the young man had declared his intention to become a treasure hunter.

While most young men were content to commission into the military and become carrier officers to further them self in society; it wasn't uncommon for males to satisfy their need for adventure by becoming treasure hunters.

They were the ones to trek into the ruins of the old world to such for old scrolls with long forgotten jutsu written within, items infused with chakra that can be used with sometimes devastating affect, or even simple run of the mill piles of gold and precious works of art that any dealer would kill for. It was a dangerous job, and most found themselves killed or driven insane within their first year, but a skilled hunter could find themselves with fame and fortune enough to be well worth the risk.

"The dress fits nicely."

Tenten glared, much to Neji's secret amusement. He'd realized when they first got the invitation that his partner of 5 years would try and find some way to duck out of the event, and had taken the liberty of purchasing an appropriate outfit for the occasion.

"Laugh it up Hyuuga, ill remember this next time you need a quick escape from your fangirls."

Neji was undaunted. Tenten hated them as much as he did, and all threats would be forgotten as soon as annoyance set in. it was one of the benefits of having a female partner, he'd decided early on, she was very good at driving the will to live into the otherwise rabid mob.

Something in her hair caught his attention, causing the stoic male to frown disapprovingly.

"Do I want to know why you're armed, at a political function?"

At least one of the dazzling pins adorning her elegantly made up hair could was designed to be used as a makeshift sinbon, albeit, a deceptively beautiful one.

Tenten smiled sweetly, and opened the teal and gold fan, the curve catching the light just so he could see the sharp edge to her tessen.

Neji's reply, because he did have one, went unvoiced, largely due to the sudden arrival of the third part of the team.

"Tenten, you shine brighter tonight then all the stars and the ruins of rain combined!"

Rock Lee, like Tenten, came from the slums of Konoha, in fact, the two had been close throughout their childhood, and had helped each other learn the basics of treasure hunting. It had only been natural that the two were recruited by ANBU, one of the top hunting agencies in the world.

Tenten couldn't help but grin. Lee, tactless as he could often seem, always had a way of putting her in a slightly less foul mood, and this time was no different. So what if her feet hurt and the dress made her feel far more exposed then the weapons expert would like; lee was right, she looked damn fine! And, should anyone decide to attempt to find out just venerable she was, they find themselves on the sharp end of her tessen.

Neji relaxed, a bit. Tenten covered in concealed weapons was one thing. Tenten pissed off, covered in concealed weapons and out for blood, was far more challenging to keep under the radar in a room full of the rich, famous, and all their body guards. Lee could be overly… enthusiastic, at times, but the young man had a way of keeping the female member of unit 10 in check.

The sound of Tenten's laughter brought Neji abruptly out of his thoughts just in time to catch sight of someone walking toward them.

Tenten noticed Neji bowing respectfully and turned to see who all the commotion was about. Honestly, Neji only bowed that low for his uncle, the head of his clan, or… well, that was about it.

Understandably, Tenten was a bit surprised to see the ginger haired male, dressed in a stormy blue/grey version of what most of the males present wore: a tightly fitted almost Asian styled tunic, over matching leggings, with a slightly darker trim and sash. The only real variation in the design seemed to be color.

Lee eyed the man from his position next to her, head cocked slightly to the side as Neji straightened.

"Nagato-sama, may I introduce my teammates, Tenten, and lee; this is Nagato Pain, the head of the museum, our employer."

Mr. Nagato nodded, slightly before turning to Neji, the official spokesperson of the team.

"Hyuuga-san, thank you for coming; The job I have is… delicate, in nature and one the museum would prefer to keep out of the public eye for the time being."

Neji nodded, he knew without looking that Tenten's amber eyes were gleaming and lee was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement. In a hunters world, discretion was code for dangerous. Unit 10 could hardly wait.


	2. Ivory

Tenten was pissed.

No, scratch that, she was furious! Not only had she spent a week on a cruise ship of all things, headed to the land of snow, she'd been stuck on said cruise ship with a hunter unit from sound! Oh, but there's more, because sucking it up for the wealthy and wearing dresses that made walking an epic journey in its self, wasn't enough torture. Dosu, one of the hunters, turned out to be a bandage wearing ass grabbing perverted little freak! Tenten could have lived with that. Perverts happened. Just ask Sakura, her unit was full of them. The problem was it was her ass Dosu was grabbing!

It gets better. Not only did the dead prince of Suna wannabe follow her for a week on the cruise, where Neji had forbade her from using any weapon, but it turned out the sound unit was after the same thing as unit 10. See, this normally would have been a good thing. Tenten could pull out her weapons, and maybe a few jutsu, and bandage boy would a hamburger, slum style (with all the crunchy bits). But noOOooo, the place had to turn out to be a labyrinth, with traps set at every turn and then some; making any fight virtual suicide.

So, there she was, trudging down a long, dark, narrow maze, listening to a furball's not so subtle attempts at seduction, while Bright Eyes and Miss Universe argued over the best way to get past a genjutsu trap. Frankly, Tenten wondered if Dosu's his teammates would really mind all that much if she gutted him.

"Idiot! Just dispel it so we can go already!" Kin, little miss sunshine herself!

"I already told you, the jutsu is layered. Dispelling the genjutsu could activate the secondary jutsu." Neji of course. Who better to act as our jutsu specialist? I mean, come on, the guy can see chakra!

"We won't know what it does unless we activate it!"

"Hn."

Apparently, Neji didn't feel like arguing his point with idiots.

"Excuse me." Neji turned to Lee, his face expressionless… at least, to anyone who hadn't spent the last few years studying the subtle differences in 'indifference' and 'indifferent'. To his teammates, who could write a book on the subject, Neji was as close to killing Kin, as Tenten was to castrating Dosu.

"If dispelling the genjutsu would trigger the secondary jutsu, then why not activate the primary jutsu so you can see what the second one is?"

The group went silent.

"Thanks for volunteering!" Zaku grinned from the back of the group.

Tenten bit back a growl. The thought of one of her unit being at less than full strength against the sound hunters, should the opportunity arise, didn't sit well with her.

"It was his idea; one of you should try it."

"WHAT! No way, like you said, it was his stinking idea, let him be the guinea pig!" Whether Zaku felt the same as Tenten, or was just afraid of the big bad jutsu, was a tad fuzzy.

"Oh, this is stupid! Kai, release!"

"SHI-"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tenten was tired, and comfortable. A potent combination that drew her a contented sigh.

That's when she first realized something was wrong; breathing wasn't supposed to hurt.

Honey eyes snapped open as the brunette jerked awake. Bad idea. Her whole body hurt like the roof had caved-in on her.

She looked around, suddenly suspicious. It hadn't caved-in on her, had it?

No, the ceiling of the room was blissfully cave-in free. Tenten sighed again, this time in relief.

"Ok, so I'm in a random room after Princess Stupid set off an unknown jutsu. Could be worse. Dosu could be here."

Something moved in the shadows behind her.

Tenten turned chakram already in hand, and almost dropped it in shock.

"No way!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lee put on a brave face as he looked at the daunting wall's climbing height above him.

No! He refused to be intimidated!

"If I can reach the top without a rope, then I will find my friends first!"

Granted, he didn't have a rope (it was sealed in one of Tenten's scrolls), but the fact remained, if he didn't climb the cliff, he wouldn't find his unit. And without his unit, to break the jutsu, Lee would wind up like so many other treasure hunters. Another dead body in the ruins.

Fire burned in his eyes.

"I will not leave Tenten to waste her youth, blaming herself for my demise!"

Lee leaped at the wall, easily finding hand-holds in the uneven stone. Neji was a genius at jutsu, and no one could beat Tenten in armed combat or sealing, but when endurance and determination decided the outcome, Lee would always come out ahead.

By the time he reached to top of the pit, he wasn't even winded.

"Need a hand?"

Lee looked up, smiling triumphantly at the brunette. He knew he'd find her if he reached the top!

He reached up to take the proffered hand, and catching sight of who was behind her, nearly fell back into the pit.

"Tenten, what-"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Neji used his chakra to stand on top of the water, not quite trusting the serene look of the place. Even without his Byakugan, something was off. But with it…

Chakra pulsed across the water, bouncing off walls like ripples in a pond, making it nearly impossible to locate the source. Nearly, but nothing's impossible for a Hyuuga. Milky eyes widened and he jumped into the air a second before a figure erupted from the water under him. Landing several meters away, he eyed his attacker wearily.

White hair pulled into a low ponytail, pitch black skin, and matching pupilless eyes…or perhaps all pupil, it was hard to say. Where Neji was wearing a tan snow suit, with white fur lining, the attacker donned a dark grey copy, with black lining.

"Always wondered what it would be like to have an evil twin."

His copy smirked.

**  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
**"Oh, right, Lee, this it Tobi. Tobi, this is my friend Lee."

Lee rubbed his eyes, before looking back at 'Tobi'… nope, it was still there. He edged closer to whisper conspiritively into the females ear. "Tenten, you do know that's a skeleton, right?"

Only slightly taller than Lee, a grinning skull was covered by an orange mask with a single eye socket, but gleaming bones were just visible under the tattered robes. At some point, they might have been red and black, but now were a faded dark color somewhere between brown and grey.

"Yep."

Lee shrugged and held out a hand. Tenten was generally a good judge of character.

"Nice to meet you, Tobi!"

Tobi shook his hand, nodding energetically.

A nearby wall exploded.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Neji was getting tired of this battle. His copy knew every move he made, and blocked his attacks with the same ease that Neji knew. Neji continued to block his copies. Long story short, they were getting nowhere.

Flipping back to avoid a particularly vicious thrust, Neji felt something hit his leg, and grinned. Normally, he left the weapons to Tenten, but he'd been forced to confiscate a kerambit on the ship to keep her from attacking a towel, whom she mistook for Dosu, when he came up behind her. He'd never used one before, but it couldn't be that hard.

Grabbing the claw-like blade, so it protruded from between hid middle and pointer fingers, he concentrated his chakra and swung.

The copy was a fraction of a second slow in the block. His body shattered the wall behind him on impact.

Neji followed, checking to make sure the copy was dead, before glancing at his teammates.

"Tenten, would you mind explaining why there's a skeleton following you?

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Hurry up, he should be somewhere around here!"

"Shut up Kin! You were the one that took a forever to break that stupid jutsu!"

"Me?! It was that damn Hyuuga that 'insisted' we do things his way!"

"Both of you! Quiet! We're here."

Zaku and Kin looked up startled. Dosu was right, the hunters were standing in the doorway to the heart of the labyrinth.

An eerie light, with no obvious source, cast flickering shadows across the floor, despite the fact that the light itself was a steady bluish glow. Gothic stone archways lined the walls, each housing alters of gold carvings depicting a horrendous beast, many with glittering jewels the size of a grown mans fist for eyes. Statues of demons, and angels caught in an endless war surrounded pillars and pertruded from the walls, as though emerging from within.

But what held the attention of the three treasure hunters, was the seal carved deeply into the floor, untouched by time, and the skeleton tethered to a pole in the center of it.

"Kin?"

Dosu questioned the jutsu specialist.

"Clear"

Nodding, the trio approached the skeleton.

"So, what's the plan? Do we bash it with a hammer or what?" Zuka asked.

"Who cares, let's just destroy it and get out of here, this place gives me the creeps."

"Chicken."

Kin glared at Zaku.

"I'm not scared idiot, the chakra signatures just weird. I'd rather not figure out why."

Zaku snorted. "Of course it's weird, it's some kind of ultimate weapon key to the end of the world thing. What's it supposed to feel like? Puppies and cotton candy?"

His laugh was cut short by a fist to the back of his head.

"Not the seal moron! The skeleton!"

Dosu looked up curious. "The skeleton has a chakra signature?"

"It's not the only one, we got company"

Before Dosu could reply, the hunter unit from leaf in into the room, including the feisty brunette with a thing for knives. What Dosu wouldn't give to have her tied up under him. Too bad he'd have to kill her, but that's just the way things worked out sometimes… Was that a skeleton following her?

"You might have found the summon first, worthy advisories, but in the end, we will prove to be the victorious ones to leave with the prize!"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tenten shared a look with Neji. Lee had a way with words, they might not always like it, but it did seem to get the point across, once he got to the point.

"Idiots! We're not here to take the seal, were here to destroy it!"

Tenten blinked and looked where Zuka was pointing.

"Oh, hell no! _That's_ the seal?! That thing has to be over 100 feet long! How the hell does Nagato expect us to transport it?"

"We'll worry about that _after_ we've dealt with them."

Tenten growled and reached for her scroll. Seal or no seal, she was going to enjoy making sure Dosu stayed out of the gene pool for good.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tenten dodged another set of shuriken.

Ok, so Dosu had a good aim. Apart from that damn arm of his, he had no short range skill to speak of. Unfortunately, he had the arm, and didn't need skill to keep Tenten in mid to long range. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue. Hitting a target, moving or otherwise, has never been a problem for the weapons mistress, but with her inner ear ruptured, she didn't dare stop dodging long enough to figure out how to aim again. Not to mention Kin's bells hanging all over the place, making the room spin.

Tenten made a mental note to start carrying chakra enhanced earplugs.

Maybe things would have been better if Tobi hadn't disappeared at the start of the fight, but she didn't really blame him; after all, he lead them to the heart of the labyrinth, signing onto a treasure hunters turf war wasn't in the program.

"Ah!"

Blood splattered behind her.

Tenten grabbed her shoulder, feeling where the kunai had shot through, and stepped back into the skeleton at the center of the seal, which had started to glow.

The sound of something ripping behind her made her freeze, or maybe it was the pair of strong arms that caught her before she collapsed from the combined vertigo, nausea, and pain. The arms shifted around her and suddenly she was staring at the ceilling. She forced her eyes to focus on the person holding her. This was harder then it sounded, because the bleached bones decided to sprout muscle and tendons before covering them in skin til' she was looking at the only male she'd ever seen who was prettier then Neji.

"This, can NOT be good."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**AN: hope you like it; I had a lot of fun writing it, despite what it looks like with the constant trips to YouTube. Btw, this was written while listening to **_**This is Halloween**_** on repeat, and switching back and forth with I luv Halloween cg's. review, let me know what you think, cuz I love feedback, good or bad, but if you flame me, at least tell me how to improve, so I can have a chance to do better next time.**

_Chakram: Xenia had one. It's a round blade kinda like a frizzbe, some come in 2 pieces, a bit like yin and yang, that can be put together to throw, or taken apart for hand to hand combat._

_Kerambit: designed after tiger claws, it's a single blade that looks like a cat's claw, with a ring on the end like a kunai_


End file.
